Battalion 1944 launches into early access on February 1, and has a beta next weekend

Battalion 1944, the Kickstarted competitive shooter inspired by old-school games such as Call of Duty 2, Enemy Territory, Quake and others, finally has an early access release date: February 1. Check out its brand new celebratory trailer above.

Ahead of the early access launch, Battalion will get a beta on Steam. It kicks off next Friday (January 19) and runs until the following Sunday (the 21st). Head here to sign up for a chance to get involved.The devs say you’ll increase your chances by following their social media, but Kickstarter and Humble backers already have guaranteed access.

Battalion 1944 will feature six game modes when it hits early access, but the beta will let you play around in two: Domination, and the new competitive mode, Wartide.

“It feels good to get Battalion 1944 into the hands of gamers after working on it so hard,” says Joe Brammer, studio lead at developers Bulkhead Interactive. “We’ve been testing the game behind closed doors with our Kickstarter backers. It’s now time for us to extend our testing to Early Access to help what I believe can one of the best competitive FPS games ever.”

If you’re tempted but not convinced, you can check out my hands-on impressions of Battalion 1944 from EGX Rezzed last year. In brief: I thought it was great. For more information, trailers, and screens, you can check out the game’sSteam page.

Battalion 1944 was born from a Kickstarter, whose massive success (it cleared £254,000 of a £100,000 goal six days before its deadline) reveals a clear appetite for a back-to-basics multiplayer shooter in this era of glossy CODs and Battlefrontfields. When it gets its final release, it will cost you £11.99, or $14.99. That’s less than the bottom tier of its Kickstarter, so backers will be compensated with unique skins and cosmetic loot crates.